Dr Disrespect officially returns to streaming

Guy “Dr Disrespect” Beahm has returned to streaming, this time on YouTube. His first stream goes live August 7 at 3pm EDT. The controversial streamer was permanently banned from Twitch in late June, for reasons that are still unknown.

Though he’d signed an exclusive deal with Twitch back in March, Beahm does not have a similar arrangement with YouTube. Sources close to Beahm say that he plans to experiment with other platforms like Facebook Gaming and his own personal website, the Champions Club.

DrDisrespect has added a $4.99/Join button to his YouTube channel, went live on Instagram just now, and played a parody news report at the end saying that "DrDisrespect may return to streaming as soon as today" pic.twitter.com/rYLmL3ue6L

— Rod Breslau (@Slasher) August 6, 2020

It’s not hard to say what all this means. Beahm is itching to get back to streaming and to return to his public. What’s less clear is the event that necessitated this return in the first place. Twitch doesn’t comment on bans as a matter of policy, but whatever happened was bad enough to invalidate an incredibly lucrative contract between one of the most famous streamers in the world and his platform of choice. Beahm’s found himself in a scene of Damoclesian peril.

Cicero’s telling of the legend has Damocles, a courtier, switch places for a day with Dionysius, his king. He was surrounded by riches and every luxury afforded to a king. Dionysius, however, had arranged for a sword to hang above the throne by a single strand of horsehair, as a way to evoke what it really meant to be king — the ever present danger that a sword, literal or metaphorical, might fall and end your life. Or, as it happens, your streaming career.